Making your home more child-friendly

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Childhood is a beautiful time when everything seems brand new. Armed with inquisitiveness and curiosity, toddlers and children love exploring different areas of the house. They also love inventing new ways to entertain themselves and subsequently create a mess. Children bring new meaning to the emotions of joy and happiness and their growing years are a time for learning and development. When this is the case, it is up to the adults of the house to provide a child-safe and friendly environment for the young ones to grow up.

While adults are used to maneuvering around the house and avoiding pitfalls of strewn furniture, electronics, light fittings, and electrical sockets, it is hazardous for a child. Small children eat wall paint and dust, bump their heads on low lying furniture, and stub their toes on sharp corners. All these supposedly harmless expeditions might change into perilous health and safety hazards for kids.

Ideally, you would want to encourage growth and curiosity in your children, while keeping them safe from harm.

Let us look at ways to make your home more child-friendly.

Anti-slip flooring:

It is true that kids fall a lot, all the time! While this situation is always dealt with in a quick and joking manner with lots of hugs and kisses for the kids, it is essential to take care of the flooring. Children can have nasty bruises, cuts, and might even break bones if they fall too often or in the same place. Use anti-slip flooring and anti-skid tiles in places like the kitchen, bathroom, children’s rooms, and play areas of the house to help children balance better and improve their posture. Materials like karndean floor act as an effective anti-slip agent. Anti-slip flooring also protects them from falling and injuring themselves in case of water spillages on the floor.

Rounded corners:

Sharp corners around the house are usually a common cause for kids getting hurt. Kids get injured very quickly because they run into the sharp corners and edges of furniture, electronic appliances, and so on. Make the corners of furniture and edges around the kitchen and dining tables round. Making the corners round in shape helps prevent injuries like scrapes, bleeding, and skin tears. If you are unable to make your furniture edges round, then invest in some child protectors around the house. You can buy these online or in retail stores. These protectors have rounded edges with adhesive inside that allow them to stick to any surface or corner. Child protectors instantly make the house child-safe.

Acrylic mirrors:

Mirrored acrylic is soon gaining popularity amongst young parents. Acrylic sheets that are formed into mirrors are impact-resistant, lightweight, shatter-proof, and low cost. These acrylic mirrors are excellent in areas that need safe environments like schools, prisons, stables, children’s bedrooms and bathrooms, old age homes, and so on. Also known as safety mirrors, these upper light mirrors can be secured to walls with blue-tack to prevent any drilling in kid’s bedrooms. Children can be clumsy at times, or they might kick a ball into the mirror. At such times, acrylic mirrors work excellently in the place of glass mirrors. It’s possible to get your acrylic mirrors cut to size, conveniently fitting them within any wall space

Hide the kitchen knives:

Yes, you heard us, hide your knives. You might feel your children are too small to understand what knives are, but they still find innovative ways to hurt themselves. Children are too innocent to understand the dangers that knives possess. They can quickly cut and injure themselves. Sometimes, it is even necessary to rush them to the hospital because of knife-related accidents due to negligence. Store your knives immediately after use either in locked drawers or in cabinets that are placed near your eye level and away from the reach of your kids. Many injuries with scissors, knives, and sharp objects occur because adults forget to put them away in time.

Non-toxic paint:

Paints are essential while considering the look, design, and feel of your house. Many homes are designed keeping children in mind. As such, non-toxic paint instead of an anti-fungal one is a better option since these paints contain toxins to prevent fungus and mold. Invest in a good quality paint that is free of toxic chemicals and is low on VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) emissions to keep the air in your house clean. Toddlers also spend a lot of time grabbing walls while they walk, run, or play around the house. The best way to keep them healthy and safe is to use non-toxic paints in children’s bedrooms, kitchens, play areas, and living rooms.